The Promised Podcast

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Pity the poor Afula! We discuss demonstrations by residents of Afula, a town in the north of Israel, against a tender for hundreds of new apartments that was won by Arab Israelis. Am I not Ayman? We discuss MK and leader of the (mostly-)Arab “Jo...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Politics of purism Former MK and political commentator Yossi Sarid tragically died this week. We discuss the legacy of the longtime leader of the “peace camp.” Was he part of why the Left is now in a shambles? The 'Mizrahification' of peace We d...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. "Horny for you" We discuss the member of Knesset who resigned after it became public that he harassed women, and ambivalent efforts to address sexual harassment elsewhere. It’s a gas, gas, gas We ask why Israel's incipient gas deal has sparked m...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Did peace slip through our fingers? We discuss a socko television documentary showing how close Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas came to a peace agreement eight years ago, and yet how far, raising a raft of “what if?” questions. The corruption dedu...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. "Well, what family doesn't have its ups and downs?"  (With apologies to James Goldman and Katherine Hepburn, or perhaps to King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine) We discuss Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent attempts to fix relations with Americ...

Noah, Don, and Haaretz columnist and ubermensch Bradley Burston discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. "They don't like us. They really don't like us!"  (With apologies to Sally Field) A meta-survey suggests that Palestinians really don’t think highly of Israelis and Jews, and other polls suggest that Isra...

Noah, Don, and Times of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. If I Divide Thee, O Jerusalem… A shocking new poll shows that 56 percent of Israelis wish to transfer Arab majority neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the hands of the Palestinian Authority, to let them kee...

In a show marking, with sadness, the 20th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s murder, Allison, Noah and Don (fresh back from rehab) discuss three Rabin-related topics, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Whose death is it, anyway? We discuss the struggle over Rabin’s legacy: Should it be a broad message about political violence, or a narrowe...

Allison, Noah, and special guest, professor and environmental leader Alon Tal, discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Standing together or coming apart? We discuss competing narratives on the left for explaining the “knifey, stabby” times we’re living in. Rage of Consent? We discuss efforts to change Israe...

Allison, Noah, and special guest Miriam Herschlag (Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor) discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Savage times These may not be the worst of times, but never have times been bad in just this way. We discuss what this week has been like for us, as parents and as people, as our Fa...

Allison, Noah, and special guest Miriam Herschlag (Times of Israel Ops & Blogs Editor) discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Third Intifada? We discuss the waves of violence engulfing us, as stabbings follow shootings follow stonings, accompanied by violent demonstrations and mass arrests. What the hell i...

Allison, Noah, and special guest Gilad Halpern (Managing Editor of Ynet News and host of TLV1’s Tel Aviv Review ) discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. The coming of the Repub-Likud & Avodah-mocrat parties We discuss PM Netanyahu’s plans to unify the parties on the right into an "Israeli Republican Party,...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Sticks and stones We discuss the raft of government proposals to increase the penalties for stone-throwing, in the wake of the tragic death of Alexander Levlovich. How ought we to treat kids in kaffiyehs pelting with potentially deadly projectil...

To mark the Days of Awe, Allison, Don and Noah discuss a trinity of topics aimed to divine the state of the spirit and the spirit of the state here in Israel. We ponder the state of religion & irreligion, spirituality & superstition, creed & cult in the Jewish State, even as God looks down upon us and ponders whether or not to inscribe The Promised Podcast in the Book of Many Downloads, or instead...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. To hell with what folks think about Israel! This year, perhaps more than ever before in history, our government seems to be saying a big "FUCK YOU" to the world. We just don’t care what you think about us. Obama? Screw you! Hollande? Up yours! M...

Allison, Noah, and The Times of Israel Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Constraining kids in casts: A scene from the occupation We discuss the inescapably viral video of an Israeli soldier grappling with a 12-year-old boy, one of his arms in a cast, as two Palestin...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Peace by the numbers A new poll commissioned by the energetic, leftist think-tank Molad, suggests a new strategy for ending the right’s grip on power and, in time, for ending the occupation and achieving peace with the Palestinians. We ask what...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Israel and the "A Word" Haaretz columnist and mensch Bradley Burston wrote an essay entitled “It’s Time to Admit it. Israeli Policy is What it Is: Apartheid.” It went viral. We ask if it makes sense – factually and politically – to use the "A wo...

Allison, Noah, and The Times of Israel's Ops & Blogs editor Miriam Hershlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. A decade out of Gaza On the tenth anniversary of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Jewish settlements in Gaza, we discuss the lasting legacy of the withdrawal - one of the most dramatic...

Noah and special guest Sandy Fox - Yiddishist, historian, and bon vivant - seek some solace from the news of a tragic week in the magnificent mosaic of Israeli music. Music : Astonishing, 100-percent-authentic Israeli music in Arabic, French, Russian, Amharic, Judeo-Iraqi, Judeo-Yemini, Judeo-Moroccan, Ladino, Yiddish, Romanian, Spanish, English, and Hebrew. It’s an almost miraculous mosaic, and a...

Noah, Ilene Prusher, and radio impresario Shoshi Shmuluvitz discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. World Jews to Israel: "Quit Messing Up Our Game!" A new study finding that Jews around the world are ambivalent about how Israel uses force, and convinced that Israel’s sometimes ill-advised use of force in t...

Don, Noah, and special guest Ilene Prusher discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. How far is J Street from my street? We discuss J Street’s upbeat campaign in support of the Iran deal, which leaves no room for the worry and ambivalence that most Israelis feel. Is a chasm spreading between the Israeli left...

Don, Noah, and special guest Miriam Herschlag discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Apocalypse Soon? Since every other sentient being is discussing it today, we thought we'd join in: What does the Iran deal mean for Israel, its people, its politicians, its Prime Minister, and its relations with America? I...

Don, Noah, and special guest Ilene Prusher discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Gas-holes! We discuss the deal that gives the rights to the country’s natural gas windfall to American and Israeli corporate consortia, leading many to argue that PM Netanyahu, like Esau in the Bible, just sold off our birthr...

Allison, Don, and Noah discuss three topics of incomparable importance, and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Fox News for the Jews We discuss the Israel “Jewish Heritage Network” (Channel 20), which is morphing into a right-wing news network before our eyes. What does the addition of a local, right-wing partisan news organization auger for the country?...